Green Bay Packers: 3 Matchups to Watch in NFC Championship
By Kenny Jilek
Adrian Amos vs. Rob Gronkowski
In these teams’ first meeting, Gronk was a big problem for the Green Bay Packers’ defense. He was Brady’s favorite target, catching five passes for 78 yards and a touchdown. He’s been ok since that game but has only gone over those yard and catch totals once since, in a week twelve loss to Kansas City.
The Packers’ linebackers aren’t particularly adept at coverage, though they have improved since then. Also, it should be noted that in this game, Oren Burks spent some time on Gronkowski, which won’t be happening this weekend.
Even though the linebackers have improved in coverage, I’m looking for one of the safeties, either Amos or Savage, to drop into the box and help out on Gronk. They’re just better coverage players, and having one in the box would help out in the run game on early downs as well.
Because of guys like Chris Godwin, Mike Evans, and Ronald Jones, Gronkowski is sometimes forgotten, but Green Bay has had troubles guarding the middle of the field all season, and I expect the Bucs to try and exploit that as they did with Gronk in week six.
Amos on Gronkowski still isn’t the perfect matchup. He’s made his living off of being a matchup nightmare at 6’6,” and he has a full six inches of height on Amos. However, Gronk isn’t the leaper he used to be, so hopefully, that won’t be as big of a factor as it seems. This defense has their work cut out for them trying to defend so many great players, but the simple move of Amos on Gronk could help solve one of their big problems.